Greetings:
I bring news of good travels and glorious days. This morning, my fellow travelers and I dressed into our Sunday best and made our way to the breakfast buffet. Little did I know, this buffet would be less than satisfying. I asked Tamami, our awesome tour guide, to show me what food I should try in order to be authentic and adventurous. She quickly pointed out a small white cup that was sealed at the top by piece of white paper. I put it on my tray. Tamami left me here to find my way as she had other business to attend to, and Shii and I continued into the rest of the buffet. By the time I sat down, my plate was complete with what seemed to be a radish (although it looked like a chopped up sand dollar), a piece of fish, some beef stew, a bowl of rice, my little white cup of fermented soy beans, and a raw egg surrounded by what looked to be vinegar (I found out later that this was a soft boiled egg). The fermented soy beans were the stick that broke the culinary adventurer’s back. The mucous attached to the paper that I pulled up to begin my meal was as sticky and stringy as caramel. I was happy to hear that lots of Japanese also dislike fermented soy beans. The rice and beef stew was the highlight, sadly. You can’t go wrong with bland.
Despite this drawn out complaint, breakfast did not spoil the day. We left for Yamaguchi Factory, and were soon greeted with open arms. All of the staff were very friendly and made us feel right at home. They gave us sandals to wear around the factory; we asked for larger sizes. Then we made our way to a conference room and began learning more about Panasonic, its global market, and the electrolytic capacitors that the plant we were currently visiting made. Mr. Hamato, Mr. Inamoto, Mr. Satoh and others made us feel very welcome as we were led through the factory and watched the manufacturing take place. The efficiency and speed is astounding. One worker maintains 15 big spinning machines, and each capacitor is tested and checked for quality multiple times. We learned much, but soon we stopped for lunch at the cafeteria. Their food is much better than ours, even in the work place. After lunch, Mr. Hamato gave us the honor of showing us some of the pictures from his trip to America. We all laughed because we take pictures of our Japanese food, and he had a picture of a full rack of ribs from Calhoun’s during his visit to Knoxville.
We had to say our goodbyes and took farewell pictures. It was a great experience, and although we all wanted to stay, there were chopsticks to be made. We took a jumbo taxi to a culture center in Little Kyoto of Yamaguchi and were taught to decorate chopsticks with lacquer and gold foil. It is much, much harder than you would ever imagine. We were told that it takes 10 years to start making good ones. Even so, there were a couple pairs that looked decent. After we finished our chopsticks, some of us began decorating our faces and fingernails with little gold diamonds which came off after a couple hours.
We came to the Shinkansen station and watched as the famous bullet train rolled in once again. The ride took about two hours. That night, Mr. Yamauchi took us to a revolving sushi bar. This was another test of the palate. Most of the sushi was just raw fish on rice, as opposed to rolls of any sort. Halfway through the dinner Molly decided to try the crab meat and crab brain roll. She gave it to me. It was smooth and creamy and tasted like a lobster tank smells. They can’t all be winners. BUT the eel was fantastic! A nice couple beside me helped me pick which soy sauce, and it made the meal so much better. I had roughly 4 plates of sushi. We finished with a stack of plates, and left to go shopping at a 100 yen store and others places of the like.
If you are reading, then thank you so much. All in all it was a long day. Thank you for reading this blogzilla of a blog.
-Rylan Bledsoe
I bring news of good travels and glorious days. This morning, my fellow travelers and I dressed into our Sunday best and made our way to the breakfast buffet. Little did I know, this buffet would be less than satisfying. I asked Tamami, our awesome tour guide, to show me what food I should try in order to be authentic and adventurous. She quickly pointed out a small white cup that was sealed at the top by piece of white paper. I put it on my tray. Tamami left me here to find my way as she had other business to attend to, and Shii and I continued into the rest of the buffet. By the time I sat down, my plate was complete with what seemed to be a radish (although it looked like a chopped up sand dollar), a piece of fish, some beef stew, a bowl of rice, my little white cup of fermented soy beans, and a raw egg surrounded by what looked to be vinegar (I found out later that this was a soft boiled egg). The fermented soy beans were the stick that broke the culinary adventurer’s back. The mucous attached to the paper that I pulled up to begin my meal was as sticky and stringy as caramel. I was happy to hear that lots of Japanese also dislike fermented soy beans. The rice and beef stew was the highlight, sadly. You can’t go wrong with bland.
Despite this drawn out complaint, breakfast did not spoil the day. We left for Yamaguchi Factory, and were soon greeted with open arms. All of the staff were very friendly and made us feel right at home. They gave us sandals to wear around the factory; we asked for larger sizes. Then we made our way to a conference room and began learning more about Panasonic, its global market, and the electrolytic capacitors that the plant we were currently visiting made. Mr. Hamato, Mr. Inamoto, Mr. Satoh and others made us feel very welcome as we were led through the factory and watched the manufacturing take place. The efficiency and speed is astounding. One worker maintains 15 big spinning machines, and each capacitor is tested and checked for quality multiple times. We learned much, but soon we stopped for lunch at the cafeteria. Their food is much better than ours, even in the work place. After lunch, Mr. Hamato gave us the honor of showing us some of the pictures from his trip to America. We all laughed because we take pictures of our Japanese food, and he had a picture of a full rack of ribs from Calhoun’s during his visit to Knoxville.
We had to say our goodbyes and took farewell pictures. It was a great experience, and although we all wanted to stay, there were chopsticks to be made. We took a jumbo taxi to a culture center in Little Kyoto of Yamaguchi and were taught to decorate chopsticks with lacquer and gold foil. It is much, much harder than you would ever imagine. We were told that it takes 10 years to start making good ones. Even so, there were a couple pairs that looked decent. After we finished our chopsticks, some of us began decorating our faces and fingernails with little gold diamonds which came off after a couple hours.
We came to the Shinkansen station and watched as the famous bullet train rolled in once again. The ride took about two hours. That night, Mr. Yamauchi took us to a revolving sushi bar. This was another test of the palate. Most of the sushi was just raw fish on rice, as opposed to rolls of any sort. Halfway through the dinner Molly decided to try the crab meat and crab brain roll. She gave it to me. It was smooth and creamy and tasted like a lobster tank smells. They can’t all be winners. BUT the eel was fantastic! A nice couple beside me helped me pick which soy sauce, and it made the meal so much better. I had roughly 4 plates of sushi. We finished with a stack of plates, and left to go shopping at a 100 yen store and others places of the like.
If you are reading, then thank you so much. All in all it was a long day. Thank you for reading this blogzilla of a blog.
-Rylan Bledsoe
Hmmm....I thought I warned you about natto. Maybe not - but I meant to. My throat refused to swallow it. Finally got some down on the third attempt.
ReplyDeleteClark